G'Day everyone……. Its your interim host here once again…….. Its a sunny Saturday here right now…….…… The weather has been much better this week….. And I have been able to get outside and get a lot of crap done that I have not been able to do….. No much else besides the boring yard work and stuff this week…… And i didnt get rained on while going on my walks......


Playing hide and seek

As for gaming this week in Emulationville I played…….

Arcade

Hammerin' Harry (1990 Irem) - Action
Strikers 1945 (1995 Psikyo) - Shoot 'em up - Vertical


Console

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (2003 Tecmo) - Microsoft Xbox - Sports (Beach Volleyball)
Final Fight 3 (1996 Capcom) - Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Beat 'em up
Gran Turismo 4 (2004 Sony) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Racing)
NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona (2002 Infogrames) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Racing)
Streets of Rage 3 (1994 Sega) - Sega Mega Drive - Beat 'em up


PC

NASCAR '15 Victory Edition (2015 Eutechnyx) - Steam - Sports (Racing)
NASCAR Heat 5 (2020 Motorsport Games) - Steam - Sports (Racing)
Postal 2 (2003 Running With Scissors) – Steam – First Person Shooter


The Dick Trickle Racing Career: Part 11
NASCAR Dirt to Daytona: Part 11

Intro music…... Hello and welcome to Left Turn Heaven….. Im Murray Eastlake and today im going to be bringing you all a special off season edition…… This week is the final week before the 2003 Weekly Dirt Racing Series starts……

And we have saved the best till last…… This week I sit down with the owner of Dick Trickle Motorsports…… Dick Trickle…… Dick came second in the championship last season…. Lets find out what he has been up to during the off season…..

Murray Eastlake: Thank you for your time and having this interview with us….. I understand you have been busy this off season….

Dick Trickle: Ive been flat out like a lizard drinking Murray…… After the success of last season everybody wanted some Dick…… I got a lot of primary sponsorship offers…… And that means a lot of meetings with the companies……. So I have been busy…… After looking over the offers….. And after considerable consideration I can tell you exclusively that I have decided to sign a primary sponsorship deal with Infograms…..

Murray Eastlake: Wow that is huge news heard here first on Left Turn Heaven……. Any information you would like to share about your secondary sponsors??

Dick Trickle: Nothing I can say yet….. My contracts with them expire after the first round this season at Dundas County Fairgrounds….. I can and will say more about that after the race….. But until then I cant say much due to contract clauses…… But I can say that just like with the primary sponsors…… Every secondary sponsor wants a piece of Dick…..

Murray Eastlake: Fair enough I understand…… Dick you came up just short last year….. Coming second in the championship by 47 points to Josh Ginter……. Now that you have had time to reflect on that…… How do you feel???

Dick Trickle: It still feels like a kick in the balls…. But Ive been a Dick my entire life Murray........ And if there is one thing I have learnt its that sometimes its better to come 2nd...… Im going to enter the 2003 season more hungry than ever……. I got so close last year I could taste it…… And this year that championship is coming to Dick Trickle Motorsport……. Mark……. My…… Words…….

Murray Eastlake: Strong words there Dick……. You had 3 wins last season the most of any driver……. And with the way your talking you must be feeling confident that you can carry that over to this season???

Dick Trickle: Yes Murray…... Getting those 2 wins in the last 2 races really showed me how well the team is going and how I have improved as a driver over the season…… Now that I have data on every track…... I am very confident that I can go out there this season and improve at every track and win more than 3 races…….

Murray Eastlake: I dont doubt for a second that you will be more consistent and competitive this season……. Any more improvements made to the car during the off season???…... has the livery changed due to the sponsorship???

Dick Trick: No more improvements yet….. Im saving the winnings from Baxter last season and im hoping to get a nice upgrade very early this season and then save a bit more for the final upgrade I need about midway through the season….. As for the livery…… That is staying the same…… It seems Infograms likes the flaming dick livery……. Although the Inforgrams sponsorship did change the car number from 455 to 400…...

Murray Eastlake: Thats good to see…… Your car stands out so well and is always very easy to spot on the track…… It makes my job commentating a lot easier……. And finally any closing words for the viewers at home and fellow competitors???

Dick Trickle: For the viewers…… Dont expect close racing for wins and dont expect a close championship…… Im going to dominate the Weekly Dirt Racing Series like you have never seen before…… If you want to see close racing for wins and a close championship battle…… You will be better off looking elsewhere……. As for my competitors……. They better watch out…… This big Dick is coming for them….. And I wont be gentle….

Murray Eastlake: Thank you for your time Dick….. Good luck for the upcoming season…..

Dick Trickle: Thank you for having me on your show Murray…… And I look forward to hearing your commentary when I win the 2003 Weekly Dirt Racing Series Championship……..

Thats all from this special off season edition of Left Turn Heaven….. The racing action will be back next week as Left Turn Heaven will be exclusively brining you all the heart stopping action from the 2003 Weekly Dirt Racing Series..…

Can Josh Ginter defend his championship???..... Or will Dick Trickle make good on his promise to take it all next year???...... Or can another driver rise to the top????...... Make sure you tune in because you wont want to miss any of what is sure to be a slobberknocker of a season..…

This is Murray Eastlake reporting for Left Turn Heaven..... And until next time its goodbye from me....

For those of you wondering…… “Murray Eastlake” is a combination of former motorsport commentators Murray Walker and Darrell Eastlake….. Both of whom were absolute legends…..

[I have been having way more fun with the NASCAR Dirt to Daytona career than I was with the MotoGP 08 career….. I hope all of you are having more fun reading it as well…….]


End of season…..




Final Season Standings…..


Infograms primary sponsorship offer….





All other primary sponsorship offers…..


Dick Trickles car for the 2003 season…..


The office area…….


The garage area…….


2003 season…..


Final Fight vs Streets of Rage: Part 3


Final Fight 3


Streets of Rage 3

Final Fight 3 Is a flawed experience…… It tires so so hard but everything it tried just falls flat……

The graphics are improved……. Larger more detailed sprites look really nice and the backgrounds now have a lot more colour in them…….. Buuuuuuuut…….. The animations are worse….. This is a very choppy game…… The animations are so choppy that even Arnold Schwarzenegger would tell you to get to it…...

The controls are…… Well…… They changed them too….. They added Street Fighter type controls for special moves…….. Like quarter circle forward and punch for Mike Hagger to do a nice spinning double axe handle attack….. The problem is that this is a beat ‘em up and not a fighting game…….

A fighting game is set on a 2D plain so inputting a special move wont move the character around the screen……. In a beat ‘em up the characters moves in a 3D plain……. So doing a quarter circle will move the character down a bit and that can be enough to make the special move completely miss…….. And its REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLY annoying to watch the move miss as it leaves the character wide open for an attack…… A nice idea on paper to expand the move set and try something new but it was not well executed….. Normal attacks and movement are fine….. And feel great…… But those specials are really flawed…..

The storyline is again nothing special……. April O’Neil has been murdered and its up to the Ninja Tur…… Wait….. Sorry…… *Changes the channel*…… Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries…… A new gang has taken over Metro City……. The Skull Cross Gang….. And they killed Deans family……. But their names are not mentioned so I assume their names were April O’Neil…… And its up to Mike, Guy, Lucia and Dean to retake Metro City and avenge April O’Neils death……. And maybe you can solve the mystery of who is the Skull Cross Gangs leader and why is the gangs name so terrible…….

The music is nice and and matches the action very well….. And the sound effects are also very good….. But what else would you expect from 90’s Capcom???

Overall its a good but flawed experience…… They tried a few new things and on paper it sounds good but in reality it was just to flawed…… Still better than the first game…..

Streets of Rage 3 Streets of Rage 3 is not as good as Streets of Rage 2….. But is it better than Final Fight 3????……

The graphics are nice…. Again going for a more colourful neon colour palette like in SoR2….. The Sprites look great and the animations are again smoother than Dick Trickles driving……

The controls are again just like SoR2….. no new movies added….. Why fix what isnt broken????…… But the way the special moves work has changed with a charging meter…… When the meter is full you can use the special move and not suffer any health loss….

The sotryline is a bit different…… April O’Neil has been kidnapped and only the Ninja Tur…….. Dammit….. Done it again…… *Changes the channel….. AGAIN*…… Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries…… The Syndicate are kidnapping Top-ranking officials and replacing them with robots under the control of Mr. X….. I pity the fo….. Wait….. Thats Mr T……. In a plan to take over the city…… And its up to Axel, Blaze, Skate and Zan to stop Mr X and retake the city…… And perhaps you can solve the mystery of who is Mr X and how does the Syndicate regain control every game???….

Hmmmmm wait…… That robot storyline sounds a lot like Snatcher….. Also if you have not played Snatcher you really need to….. It is a fantastic game…….

The music unlike SoR2 is nowhere near as good…… Its a lot more synth….. technoy…… I dont know music genres that well but its all over the place…… Its not bad its just….. Different……. I have heard a lot worse……. Yes im looking at you C.Rap Boyz and GameCube Disney Sports Games…… The voice samples are really not good either…… This is really disappointing after the awesome sounds in SoR2…….

Overall Streets of Rage 3 is not as good as Streets of Rage 2….. BUT….. It is better than Final Fight 3…… The Street Fighter like controls in Final Fight 3 just really ruin it for me…… And I had way more fun and found Streets of Rage 3 to be the better game…..

So Streets of Rage 3 takes a narrow win over Final Fight 3…. Giving Streets of Rage a clean sweep over Final Fight…..

The Scores
Final Fight – 0
Streets of Rage - 3


Final Fight 3


Streets of Rage 3


Next week I will continue the yard work and of course keep training the puppy…… I also need to get the winter quilt and blankets back on the bed as its starting to get cold here at night…… And theres also real work and paying bills and crap like that….. That only ends once your dead…… Sometimes the sweet release of death cant come soon enough…….

As for gaming there will be more hardcore Dick Trickle racing action in NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona……. There are still a few more Final Fight and Streets of Rage games to play so that will continue…… But not as a versus series……. And I will continue my stupid quest of making a setup for every car at every track in NASCAR Heat 5……

Current setup checklist…...
Cup: 21 of 30
Xfinity: 20 of 30
Truck: 21 of 31
Dirt: 9 of 9

Well thats it from me…… Have a good week everyone……

Now for my bad joke of the week……
As a kid I thought "Murhpys Law" was "Get killed and become Robocop"...... Man was I way off.....
*ba dum.... tssssh…...*